How To Install the OpenLiteSpeed Web Server on Ubuntu 22.04
Introduction
OpenLiteSpeed is an optimized, open-source web server that can be used to manage and serve sites. OpenLiteSpeed has useful features that make it a strong choice for many installations, including Apache-compatible rewrite rules, a built-in web-based administration interface, and customized PHP processing optimized for the server.
In this tutorial, you will install and configure OpenLiteSpeed on an Ubuntu 22.04 server.
Prerequisites
To complete this tutorial, you will need an Ubuntu 22.04 server with a sudo
-enabled, non-root user and the ufw
firewall enabled, which you can set up by following the Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 22.04.
Step 1 – Installing OpenLiteSpeed
Before using OpenLiteSpeed, you will need to install it. OpenLiteSpeed provides a software repository that you can use to download and install the server with Ubuntu’s standard apt
command.
Begin by updating the package manager cache:
sudo apt update
Then install any pending upgrades:
sudo apt upgrade
If prompted, enter your password, then confirm the installation with Y
.
To enable this repository for your Ubuntu system, download and add the developer’s software signing key:
sudo wget -O - https://repo.litespeed.sh | sudo bash
wget
fetches a shell script located on OpenLitespeed’s server that will automatically perform the necessary steps to add the Litespeed repository to Ubuntu’s apt
package manager. The content of the shell script is passed to a new bash
shell via the |
pipe.
The output of this command will be:
Output
Update the list of repositories to ensure that the newly added repository is scanned by the apt package manager:
sudo apt update
To install the OpenLitespeed server and the corresponding LiteSpeed PHP interpreter, run the command:
sudo apt install openlitespeed lsphp81
If prompted, enter your password, then confirm the installation with Y
.
This command installs the Openlitespeed server package and LSPHP 8.1. LiteSpeed PHP (LSPHP) is a PHP interpreter integrated with the LiteSpeed Server Application Programming Interface (LSAPI).
Now that the OpenLiteSpeed server is installed, you will secure it by updating the default administrator account.
Step 2 – Setting the Administrative Password
Before testing the server, you will set a new administrative password for OpenLiteSpeed. You can do this by running a script provided by OpenLiteSpeed:
sudo /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh
You will be asked to provide a username for the administrative user. If you press ENTER
without choosing a new username, the default username admin
will be used. You can use whatever administrative username you prefer. Then you will be prompted to create and confirm a new password for the account. Put in the administrative password you prefer, then press ENTER
again. The script will confirm a successful update:
Output
You have now secured the admin account. Next, you will test the server to ensure it’s running properly.
Step 3 – Connecting to the Server
In this step, you will connect to your server.
OpenLiteSpeed should have started automatically after it was installed. You can verify if it started with the systemctl status
command:
sudo systemctl status lsws
This command will print the following output:
Output
The active (running)
message indicates that OpenLiteSpeed is running.
If your server is not running, you can start the server using systemctl
:
sudo systemctl start lsws
The server should now be running. Press CTRL+C
to exit the service output.
Before visiting it in your browser, you will need to open some ports on your firewall, which you can achieve with the ufw
command:
sudo ufw allow 8088,7080,443,80/tcp
The first port, 8088
, is the default port for OpenLiteSpeed’s example site. After allowing it with ufw
, it should now be accessible to the public. In your web browser, navigate to your server’s IP address or domain name, followed by :8088
to specify the port:
http://server_domain_or_IP:8088
Your browser will load the default OpenLiteSpeed web page, which will match the following image:
The links at the bottom of the page demonstrate various features of the server. If you click through them, you may notice that these features are already installed and properly configured, including an example CGI script that is available, a customized PHP instance that is up and running, and custom error pages and authentication gates that are configured.
When you are satisfied with the default site, you can move on to the administrative interface. In your web browser, navigate to your server’s domain name or IP address using HTTPS and followed by :7080
to specify the port:
https://server_domain_or_IP:7080
You will likely see a page warning you that the SSL certificate from the server cannot be validated. Because this is a self-signed certificate, this message is expected. Click through the available options to proceed to the site. In Chrome, you must click Advanced and then Proceed to….
You will be prompted to enter the administrative username and password that you selected with the admpass.sh
script in the previous step:
Once authenticated, you will be presented with the OpenLiteSpeed administration interface:
The majority of your configuration for the web server will take place via this dashboard.
In this step, you connected to the server via newly opened ports. Next, you will update the port used by the default page.
Step 4 – Changing the Port for the Default Page
To demonstrate how to configure options through the web interface, you will change the port that the default site uses from 8088
to the conventional HTTP port (80
).
Start by pressing Listeners in the list of options on side navigation bar. A list of all available listeners will load.
From this list, click the magnifying glass, which is the View button, for the Default listener:
This action will load a page with more details about the Default listener. Click the edit button (the pen and paper symbol) in the top-right corner of the Address Settings table to modify its values:
This button will open a new screen. Change port 8088
to port 80
, then click the Save button (the floppy disk symbol):
After saving the modification, you will need to restart the server. Click the arrow icon for the Graceful Restart action that will restart OpenLiteSpeed:
If you are prompted to restart LiteSpeed, press the Go button.
The default web page should now be accessible in your browser on port 80
instead of port 8088
. Visiting your server’s domain name or IP address without providing a port number will now display the site.
You can now add any HTML
, CSS
, JS
or other files that you wish to feature on your website to the directory located at /usr/local/lsws/Example/html
.
Conclusion
At this point, you have OpenLiteSpeed and PHP installed and running on an Ubuntu 22.04 server. OpenLiteSpeed offers great performance, a web-based configuration interface, and pre-configured options for script handling.